The Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational has evolved into one of college wrestling’s toughest early season tournaments. Both Iowa State and Northern Iowa will join this year’s action, which will run all day Friday and Saturday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Neither team is expected to contend for the team title, according to Flowrestling, but there is plenty to watch individually. Three Panthers are among the favorites at their weights. After going winless in two duals, the Cyclones can offer Kevin Dresser another view of what he has in this year’s team.

Here, we offer a Take Five detailing what to expect this weekend from both Iowa State and Northern Iowa. This weekend will be a good barometer for all involved, so let’s get to it.

Team opportunity for UNI

The Panthers opened the 2017-18 with high hopes, and coach Doug Schwab was not shy about it at the team’s media day a month ago. Those expectations were tempered somewhat after Northern Iowa’s season-opening loss to Cornell two weeks ago and a closer-than-it-should-have-been win over North Dakota State two days later.

And — OK. Those duals were in November, and the CKLV tourney takes place during the first two days of December. Fine. Let’s relax. Because ultimately, Schwab wants his guys ready to go in February and March.

Yet, this weekend’s tournament is an opportunity for the Panthers to jump back into that top-10 conversation where they began the season. Flowrestling’s team score projections say Northern Iowa will finish seventh with 53.5 points — 7.5 points behind Virginia Tech and just nine points behind Nebraska, which are projected to go sixth and fifth, according to Flo.

It’s not unreasonable to think Northern Iowa can leap the Hokies and Huskers and leave Vegas with a top-five team finish. They are capable, but they’ll need to show up and perform. Only five wrestlers garnered pre-seeds (Jay Schwarm, 11 at 125; Josh Alber, 6 at 141; Max Thomsen, 1 at 149; Taylor Lujan, 5 at 174; and Drew Foster, 4 at 184).

The rest of the lineup needs to step up in order to make it happen.

"We should be at this point as a team," Schwab said during the team's media day. "… We've done a lot of work to get to this point, but we have a whole group of guys that are some of the best in the country.

“Now, it's time to go show it."

Thomsen’s chance to shine

It’s weird to say Thomsen, Northern Iowa’s star 149-pounder, has an opportunity this weekend, considering he’s already well-established as one of the country’s best. But, really, the sophomore can really make his mark this weekend.

CLOSE

The returning All-American discusses the upcoming season for Northern Iowa.
Cody Goodwin/The Register

Consider: Thomsen is No. 3 nationally at 149, according to Trackwrestling, and joining him in Vegas will be four other wrestlers in the top-10 (No. 5 Troy Heilmann, of North Carolina; No. 7 Colton McCrystal, of Nebraska; No. 8 Ke-Shawn Hayes, of Ohio State; No. 9 Justin Oliver, of Central Michigan) as well as Virginia Tech’s Solomon Chisko, who’s ranked 12th and has a win over Thomsen last year.

Thomsen could really put his stamp on the weight class by, in wrestling parlance, widening the gap against those guys below him in the national polls.

Is Ian Parker for real this year?

That seems bold, but Iowa State’s freshman 133-pounder looked as if he were emerging as something of a dark horse. He opened the year with seven-straight wins and climbed into the national rankings.

But Parker dropped his last two matches — to Missouri’s John Erneste in the finals of the Lindenwood Open, and to Rider’s Anthony Cefolo last Sunday. Both by fall. Ouch.

“No question we were favored there,” Dresser told assembled media after Parker’s loss to Cefolo last Sunday. “I love Ian Parker’s effort and his importance of wrestling, but you just can’t make those mistakes and get thrown to your back.”

Still, 7-2 is a respectable record for his first collegiate season, and Parker can bounce back this weekend. He secured the No. 11 pre-seed at 133, a weight that features eight ranked wrestlers — including five of the top nine, according to Trackwrestling.

A good showing against will put Parker back on the right track.

Cyclones can seize spots this weekend

One thing Dresser mentioned earlier this season was that he didn’t know too much about his team. And after the first couple of duals and competitions, it’s clear he’s still tinkering and figuring things out.

“We don’t know a lot about these guys right now, in terms of, how they’re going to perform under the fire,” Dresser said at the team’s media day. “… So for us, it’ll be really exciting to see which guys step up and become the next big name at Iowa State.”

This weekend, lineup spots could be seized with solid performances. Among them: 125, where Jakob Allison got the nod over Justin Marmolejo; 165, which was offered up to Colston DiBlasi over Logan Breitenbach; and 174, where Hank Swalla, who's wrestling this weekend, has split time with Luke Entzel.

Storr can make big moves

Iowa State’s Kanen Storr enters this weekend with a 6-2 record, and he might get an opportunity to get one of those losses back since Oklahoma’s Mike Longo, who beat Storr at the Lindenwood Open, is also in the field at 141 pounds.